Eagerly watching The Platypus race down the track. He took 13th out of about 40. Not bad for his first year. Lucky for this Primary president/Cub committee chair the Stake Primary organizes the Pinewood Derby. We just had to show up.

Not much changes year to year at the elementary school PE program. This year's highlights were Erik dancing with an unexpected amount of gusto to Katy Perry's Roar, and watching Ryan put away the parachute like a pro. He was very excited to be trusted with that responsibility.

Shelbi is having a very different experience in Young Women than I did. There are only about 12 active girls in Young Women here in our ward. When I was growing up, there were that many in my age group alone. I used to wish that she could be a part of a big group like I was, but when I see her interact with this really good group of girls, I'm happy for her. With such a small group, she's able to closely associate with all the girls, of any age. I love that she's friends with the sixteen and seventeen year olds, as well as the twelve year olds.

I had a hard time pulling the boys away from this tonight to go to bed. They were watching American Ninja Warrior. It was the U.S. against Japan. Erik was rooting for Japan because, apparently, he's "really into Japan right now."

Shelbi's been preparing two years for this event. Last year she studied with the team, but wasn't old enough to compete. This year she was part of the all-girl team. It was tough competition. I sat in awe of the depth scientific knowledge of these kids. Her team made it to the afternoon rounds, being beat out by the teams that went on to get second and third place.

*Shelbi, if you're reading this, and I know you will at some point, please consider competing again next year. I know it's a big commitment and not always fun, but it was good to work toward a goal as a team and usually the hard things we do bring us the greatest satisfaction. Remember how fun this day was? Remember what a benefit you were to your team? Keep that in mind. :)

Two years ago, when our school held the first Sock Hop, all my kids were dressed up in cute poodle skirts and tough-guy t-shirts for the event. Even I dressed up. The kids danced The Twist and did the Hand Jive. Here we are a couple years later. No fancy dressing up, unless you count Ryan's Batman face paint (?), and the kids spent most of the night in the gym playing basketball. I'm good with that.

The Superbowl may have been on tonight, but the hottest game at our house was this guess-the-card game. Over and over Bailey would sift through this deck of cards and ask me to guess which one she was holding. No matter that she'd do it in plain sight, so I could always miraculously guess correctly.

We have officially entered the world of scouts now that Erik's eight years old. I'm still coming around to the whole program. I think it's expensive and out-dated in many cases, but boy is Erik enthusiastic. He sure loves wednesday nights when he can go do important scouting activities with his den. I'm trying my best not to squelch his excitement. If he loves it, great.

Erik and his best buddy getting some important instruction from their handsome Cubmaster